autumn ablaze

let there be light

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welcome, mister sandman

when words fail us

As you can tell, I haven't been writing much on the blog lately. I've been grasping for words. Actually, that's not quite accurate. I've been pushing words away. Every day I am bludgeoned by the unwelcome words of others. Ever notice how careless people can be when it comes to choosing words? How lazy linguistics leads to loopy logic? How people parrot what they hear on the news but inevitably get it wrong anyway, like a game of Telephone Operator behind Niagara Falls? When the signal-to-noise gauge becomes buried so deep in the red, I want to flee from all words, including my own.

Blah, blah, blah. Time to go to sleep and enjoy the silence.

today i am a small blue thing

This photo was once the wallpaper on my computer screen at work.
For some reason, it creeped out a co-worker enough that he asked me to change it.
This house has many hearts. -- Poltergeist

still night

by the dawn's early light

light and dark

electric eye in a slate-gray sky

ripples

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the cheesiest music video ever?

Even if you have to turn your speakers off, you must watch this Finnish video all the way through. You haven't lived until you've seen a conga line of mutant-cheerleaders doing the lawnmower. The comments on the site are pretty funny too.

abstraction

sunrise

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industrial porn

this corrosion

do you see what i see?

three cheers for autumn

wind and water

my name is blanket

I love fake autobiographies as much as the proverbial next guy--
this one should give you a few chuckles.

signs along the trail

hating with style

Check out this brilliant rant that lists the many reasons to hate Mike Love. I could not agree more.

guilty! guilty! guilty!

I am guilty of many things lately. I have done the backslide boogaloo and have not kept my New Year's resolution of non-procrastination. I have slacked on my blog, especially in the chronicling of my out-of-control CD shopping. I am a slug, so please forgive me.

So what used discs have I picked up most recently? In no particular order:

Harold Budd -- The Room (ambient, beautiful, with a hint of menace)

Donovan -- Sutras (thanks to Harry for recommending this one)

Judas Priest -- Rocka Rolla, Sad Wings of Destiny, Hell Bent for Leather, Unleashed in the East (all remastered and ass-kicking)

Curve -- Doppelganger (shoegaze was never more sultry)

Twinemen -- Chicago IL 02.02.03 (fine two-disc live show)

Iron Maiden -- Live After Death (scream for me, Long Beach!)

Much more to come...

farewell, marcel

Marcel Marceau has died at the age of 84. Goodbye, Bip, and thank you for your childlike wonder. Would that we all could walk against the wind with such graceful determination.

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anger is an energy

Do you think that the Dalai Lama ever has one of those days where he just wants to run around and punch his fellow monks in the back of the head, and when they ask why, scream "Because you fucking deserve it, you worthless piece of shit!"

Just wondering.

old man river

this photo made my day

Courtesy of Pictures of Walls

through a glass darkly

I want to reach my hand into the dark and feel what reaches back.
-- Nicole Blackman

overheard...

...while walking along the towpath this morning:

"When my parents were dating, they used to come here, throw empty beer bottles into the river, and shoot them with a .22."

Ahhhh, romance!

junkyard dog

today's weather

I am a silver cloud with a dark lining.

a true moment of clarity

We are living in hell. We have two choices: we can become a part of the hell around us, or we can find those things around us that are not hell, and give them a form that will allow them to endure. -- Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

quote of the day

Efficiency: the right amount of the right quality of energy, in the right place at the right time, doing what is right. -- Robert Fripp

by this river

devilish defacing

I stumbled across this book over a decade ago while browsing through the Henry Miller collection at the Kent State library. In general, I'm against defacing public property, but this smart-ass ballpointed comment always made me snicker.

unexpected mascots

zappa plays zappa

Last night my friend Anthony and I went to hear Zappa Plays Zappa perform at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights. Both of us were fortunate enough to have seen Frank Zappa in concert three times (twice in 1984, once in 1988), so we were pretty psyched to hear Dweezil pay musical tribute to his dad's vast catalog of songs.

We were not disappointed. Dweezil has assembled a tight and talented group of musicians able to perform Frank's music with accuracy and humor. The special guest for this tour is long-time Zappa guitarist/vocalist Ray White. Ray sang his ass off last night, sounding just as good as he did in '84--highlights for me were his renditions of City of Tiny Lites and The Illinois Enema Bandit. Plus, he played a great solo in Advance Romance, trading bluesy licks with Dweezil.

At the merchandise table I purchased the new Zappa 2-CD set entitled Buffalo, a full concert from 1980. I've listened to the first disc so far: killer guitar solo on Pick Me, I'm Clean. I also bought the Classic Albums DVD that focuses on the making of Overnite Sensation and Apostrophe--this documentary is a must-have for any and all Zappa fans.

On the DVD, Dweezil sits at the mixing desk and isolates various tracks so you can hear all the cool little guitar and keyboard riffs that sometimes go unnoticed. He also play snippets from the sessions that were edited out of the final releases, including more great backing vocals from Tina Turner and the Ikettes. Plus, a full version of Montana shot live onstage at the Roxy in 1973! Buy this now--it is soooo worth the money.

Thanks to Anthony for the ticket, and thanks to Dweezil and band for an excellent night of music. And a special thank you to the Lemon Grass on Lee Road for a very satisfying pre-show Thai meal.

Life is good.

double happiness

A big thank you to Monique for the title.

inna gadda da yerba (buena)

Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco CA

I love this little park, located right by Moscone Center and only a block away from my hotel. Every morning before heading into the convention hall, I sat here and watched the seagulls swoop into the fountains. Elderly Asians practiced tai chi while other people stretched out on the grass to meditate.

What a mellow way to start the day. I'm glad to be back home, but I will miss these peaceful mornings.

prisoners coming!

In about seven hours I will be flying to San Francisco to install a large exhibit for a trade show at Moscone Center. My camera is malfunctioning lately, so I can't guarantee any photos but I will try. I just hope that I don't end up on this trolley.

air pudding and wind sauce

completely kinetic

Sculptures by Charles Ringer

Be sure to check out the Whimsical section. Every town needs a Creature to stand guard.

find your anger

An Interview with Henry Rollins

Be sure to watch the YouTube clip at the end of the interview. I know where my anger is. I just need to figure out how to use it more effectively.

warholic ii

static never sleeps*

1.
you can hear,
as of time, to the time,
sixteen miles outside the city--
the smooth human sound.
underneath its wings
with my hands around its neck,
its mouth like a shipwreck.

2.
in a photo that bent,
chasing change from above,
falling in early afternoon--
when i forgot
to come around,
and the wind also fell
and was not surprised.

*Composed by Broken Poem Generator & Babelfish--
tweaked by lowercase lifestyle.

strange bedfellows

Photo courtesy of my good friend Amber.

embrace your problems?

I am not choosing an easier life;
I am choosing a better quality of problem. -- Robert Fripp

The above quote nails how I've been feeling lately but haven't been quite able to put into words. Life will never be problem-free, but we are free to pick or discard certain problems. Or as Henry Rollins once said, just because someone hands you a turd doesn't mean you have to take it.

Don't give me your problems!

embrace the random xxiii

The Captain Haddock Insult Generator

Dunderheaded coconuts!

evil lurks in stagnant waters

what for you no write in blog

I seem to have developed a little case of writer's block lately. Maybe it's because I'm still floating on my post-vacation cloud, or perhaps that cloud is really a fog caused by me kicking the caffeine habit once again.

Maybe it's the weather: "Yep, Ma, I reckon it's too hot to blog, jus' too dang bloggin' hot." Oh well, this too shall pass. In the meantime, here's some more Kent State plant life.

warholic

and through the wire

what i heard on my spring break

Today is the last day of my eleven-day vacation, and I feel physically and emotionally healthier than I have in months. I feel lighter yet more solid, more real, more me. Maybe that has been the goal of all my reading, all my therapy, all my meditation: not to become a better person but to become the real me. Slowly discarding my once-useful, now-harmful defense mechanisms, I'm discovering the truly decent guy beneath all the armor.

Being away from the usual distractions and conflicts, away from the external and internal noise, I have allowed many lessons to resonate clearly inside myself. The true challenge now is to keep the resonance going once the noise and distractions resume. The true challenge is to reach inside and touch the sound.

five maxims to live by iv

1. True mistakes are never malicious.

2. There are always more than two choices, except when there are not.

3. If you can't say anything nice, take a walk.

4. Initial information is rarely accurate.

5. Cult movies are born, not made.

how high's the water, momma?

pipe!